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Contact: Liz Carroll
Phone: 413/775-1420
E-mail: carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Media contact: Liz Carroll
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413/775-1420 | carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Release date: January 24, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Workshop in Chinese language bridges cultural gap

Learn to take tea like a native

Tea is to the Chinese as coffee is to Americans. That's why students in Yuan-Hsiu Lien's Beginning Chinese credit-free workshop will take part in a traditional tea ceremony during class. Yuan-Hsiu brings in her tea set, an assortment of teas, and a machine that keeps the water at a temperature almost to boiling. "We can talk about how you behave in a Chinese household, for example, and what you might say in that social setting. So students will gain both the knowledge of this drink, which is like coffee to this culture, and then they also apply the language while they're doing the ceremony,” says Yuan-Hsiu, who grew up in Taiwan, and came to the United States to pursue her graduate studies. "We really had fun when I did that on campus.”

"On campus” refers to Northfield Mount Hermon School, where Yuan-Hsiu taught Chinese for five years. She is now starting a new job up the road in south Windham County, where she is setting up a Chinese language program for students in the K-12 public school district. "Living and working on campus,” she says, "I realized that I didn't really know that much about this area. I offered the same course for faculty and it was quite successful.”

Her workshop is for anybody who is interested in either the Chinese culture or the Chinese language. "It's hard to really separate the two,” says Yuan-Hsiu. "You can't learn one without learning the other.

"If I were to define language,” she explains, "I would say it's a tool to interpret your world. When you learn a language without understanding its cultural background, then you're learning a dead language.”

Students will learn conversational Chinese in fun ways like role-playing and card games. Games are an important teaching tool in Yuan-Hsiu's class. "I think games help people relax in the learning environment, and that's important because you can't learn a language well when you're nervous. So when we learn numbers, I'll take a deck of cards and toss them out one at a time and see which partner names it faster (in Chinese!). Or we might play Go Fish and say, in Chinese, ‘do you have a two?' I'm confident that this will be a useful, fun class, and provide me with a chance to meet more people!”

It's all part of a larger mission to help people understand other cultures.

"The point is not how many vocabulary words you learn,” says Yuan-Hsiu, "but the idea that you are willing to come and learn about another culture, another language. The world is getting smaller and smaller, and as the tsunami event brings home to us, you can't just ignore one part of the world. Opening one's heart to understanding the rest of the world is a lot more important, I think, than content alone. That's my wish, and that's why I think this course is important and could be powerful.”

Beginning Chinese ($125) starts Tuesday, Feb. 15, and runs for 10 weeks. To sign up, please call 413-775-1803 (9 to 5) or the 24-hour line at 413-774-7690 (credit card only). There may be a $25 textbook fee.